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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 1, 2007 14:34:09 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron doesn't know anything about budding! Primus made everyone forget, remember? Oh right, Primus made everyone forget. You wouldn't remember.
He shakes his head and corrects, "We weren't consumer goods in my timeline. We were created by Primus - the god-like entity I mentioned earlier - to fight his ancient enemy, Unicron. Primus never saw fit to create any females, and when we took up making more of ourselves, the idea never occurred to us."
Personally, he would have done Arcee entirely differently, if he had been in charge of that project, or possibly he would have just explained that no, they don't have any women. Deal with it, humans. Kthxbye.
Xaaron hefts up the dragon, which squirms in the unfamiliar golden one's grasp, and sets it down in the dump truck's bed. Then he adds himself. Always thinking ahead, he suggests, "We may want to lash your... thing down, so that it doesn't fall out of the truck." That or bite Xaaron. Lashed down dragonets can't bite him, and not being bitten is good.
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Post by Long Haul on Jun 1, 2007 14:49:46 GMT -5
Long Haul considers Xaaron's explanation, though he doesn't comment on it out loud. Robots just... just randomly poofed into existence? Seems leakin' weird to him. And from the sounds of things, they were all made to fight.
A bit of niggling suspicions nags at the corners of Long Haul's mind, but he pushes it away. Besides, a person can't help what they were built for, and it wasn't as if his group hadn't befriended those built for combat or, indeed, slave suppression, before.
The transport considers Xaaron's recommendation. "Didja leave the cable in my bed with the wings? If you did, might as well tie it to the wings with that... there's also the harness I made for it. Might be able to use that."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 1, 2007 15:21:30 GMT -5
They didn't randomly poof into existence. They were extruded from the living metal of Primus. At least, that's how the story goes. Emirate Xaaron is old, but he isn't old enough that he was actually there.
Emirate Xaaron is also attempting to child-proof Long Haul's dump truck bed for a baby dragon. Life continues to become stranger. He expects it to come out the other side in normalcy soon. Emirate Xaaron ahs and nods, grabbing the cable and the harness. He could really use some of those bungee cords that have hooks on either end, but he makes do, coaxing the dragonet into the harness, muttering, "You wouldn't bite your Emirate, would you? Trust your Emirate. He's just looking out for - ow!" He glares and protests, "I am not food! Besides, I will have you know that politicians are extremely bad for your health. I believe that our nutritional value has been compared to slime."
He manages to gets the dragonet into the harness and the harness lashed to the side of the dump truck bed. He also managed to get the wings lashed down, which the dragonet sniffs curiously. Emirate Xaaron says, sounding slightly disgruntled, "We seem to be ready to go."
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Post by Long Haul on Jun 1, 2007 15:57:50 GMT -5
Long Haul tries very hard not to laugh. He tries so very hard. But he is neither subtle nor particularly good at hiding his feelings, and at the "ow" and the subsequent protests, a strangled chuckle still escapes the dump truck. He tries to cover it by starting his engines and getting them rumbling.
"We are? Arright, then. I'll head off towards the edge of the city... hopefully we'll have some maps transmitted to us by the time we get there."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 1, 2007 16:26:34 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron hears that laugh. Between that and the 'oldtimer' crack on the radio, he huffs and wishes he could cross his arms. Alas, he has to hold the sides of the dump truck to make sure that he doesn't fall out when Long Haul inevitably hits a bump. Xaaron grouses, "Do I sound old, Long Haul?" Petulance is not like him. He bets that this Swerve is just some young, turbo-revving punk.
More on topic, he says, "Oh, yes. We can go now. Maps would be good. I shall have to remind Perceptor to get Synapse on that, if they don't do it soon."
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Post by Long Haul on Jun 1, 2007 16:52:02 GMT -5
"I dunno!" Long Haul answers as he starts to roll forward. "You sound like you!" Very helpful, Long Haul!
The transport rumbles over the roads, heading generally north. Long Haul sticks to the main roads, which turn rarely, and are still in rather good condition. He gets up to the fastest speed he can safely to without bumping out his passengers, which is... not very fast, but he's not very fast, anyway. Though he knows the others would tell him he's foolish, he's still eager to meet up with his old friend.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 1, 2007 23:17:21 GMT -5
And they do indeed receive maps from Synapse! Hopefully the maps also specify what spot is half-way. No one seems to have actually mentioned that bit. Dryly, Emirate Xaaron remarks, "Very useful, Long Haul. So... terrain seems decent enough."
He again positions himself so that he can survey the rear view for potential problems. Emirate Xaaron remarks philosophically, "Looking ahead is all well and good, but sometimes, it pays to look back."
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Post by Long Haul on Jun 1, 2007 23:31:47 GMT -5
Long Haul rolls for it, like any good little Autobot! He takes in the terrain information and begins adjusting his path, this time heading more certainly to the north. Particularly, he's heading towards what looks to be a road running parallel to the beach.
"Huh?" he asks in response to Xaaron's observation. "I can't look back too well in this mode! That's why I asked you to do that earlier!"
Poor, literal Long Haul.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 2, 2007 12:41:57 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron shakes his head, sighs, and leans back. Quietly, he says, "Long Haul? It was a figure of speech." He half expects Long Haul to say something about how speech doesn't have much of a figure.
He watches, trying to match what he sees to maps than Synapse so kindly provided. He tries not to let the dragonet distract him as it snaps at the insectoids at they fly by the dump truck.
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Post by Long Haul on Jun 2, 2007 13:47:33 GMT -5
See! The dragon's already proving useful! It eats the little buggies, which are potential annoyances!
Long Haul does not point out that speech doesn't have much of a figure. Instead he just says, "Oh. Uhm... sorry," and trudges forward awhile before adding, "Language isn't really one of my strong points." Because that would totally not be obvious if Long Haul didn't take the time to point it out.
Before too long he reaches the road he had identified from the over-air maps, and it's at that time that Synapse transmits his estimation of the half-way point... and addresses Long Haul over the Autobot frequency! "Whelp, guess there's not much more point in me pretendin' I can't listen in on alla that!" he observes.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 2, 2007 22:44:13 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron is vainly trying to ward of a headache from all this. He can take strange cases of time travel and temporal displacement, it's just the little niggly errors that could happen any time that are getting to him. Emirate Xaaron says, "I still wouldn't advise contacting him over the radio just yet, but yes, Ravage is out of the cassette deck. Primus, I have my work cut out for me, getting this group in order... even you'll even allow it to be my work."
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Post by Long Haul on Jun 2, 2007 23:06:36 GMT -5
"Wasn't going to," Long Haul answered. Now that he was on the open road, he was making good time. Well, for a dump truck. There was still no way he'd make it to the meeting point before Omega Supreme, however. "But who's Ravage? And why do we needa get in or-" Long Haul interrupts himself, then allows, "Well, I s'pose Omega Supreme not wanting to kill me might be a good thing."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 3, 2007 9:41:47 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron groans and says, "I'm going to have to make a briefing list of all the major players in the war. I don't suppose that you have a deck of cards that you wouldn't mind me drawing on? Ravage is a feline-formed robot who serves Megatron. Extremely loyal to Megatron, and more dangerous than he is loyal. Investigations implicate Ravage in the death of the last Autobot Overlord. He does covert operations work and intelligence gathering. Nasty little piece of work."
After that explanation, he continues, "Why do we need to get in order? Aside from the rather pressing issue of your continued survival, temporal displacement devices don't build themselves, and there are Decepticons here. We have the twin tasks of returning home and stopping the Decepticons. Neither of those will get done if everyone just does what he..." belatedly, he adds, "or she wants. We do need some sort of structure."
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Post by Long Haul on Jun 3, 2007 10:37:03 GMT -5
"Ah, yeah, struture. Yeah, I can see how that's important." Long Haul is a builder! Builders like structures! "Are we, erm, just assuming it's the Decepticons what are doing this? 'Cos if it ain't, seems to me there's not gonna be any permanent way of stopping them in this place. If we all find a way home and more folks just keep arriving, that is. And what are we stopping them from doing here, anyways? We don't even know what they wanna do!"
Long Haul considered this as he rolled forward, and eventually he added, "Though seems to me that getting me back to my time might put a hurtin' on what they wanna do in at least one universe. Just going by what Perceptor had to say, if I can find a way to... to get that to not happen... sounds like that'll make a pretty big difference."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 3, 2007 12:08:26 GMT -5
"Assumptions are very dangerous things," Emirate Xaaron says, stressing the point. "It could be the work of the Decepticons, but I somehow doubt it. As fond as they are of baroque schemes, it seems inefficient, even for them. I will not rule out the possibility, however. Likewise, it could be the work of Unicron. It could be a side effect of the Time Wars - a series of battles wherein people from within my timeline and its possible futures were displaced. It could be something else entirely. The data is too scanty to say anything definite."
"You do have a point. It would be irresponsible to depart without first understanding the transport mechanism. Besides, if it could be harnessed, it could be potentially useful. Why not set up trade between the universes?" His head spins with the sheer possibilities, and says quietly, reverently, "Whoever could first harness the might of the universes would be nearly assured of victory." Imagine, not one Ultra Magnus to face the Decepticons, but a dozen, and that's just a cautious idea. "Although I do wonder if the Omega Supreme here would cease to exist if you changed the past in which he was created."
"As for what we are stopping the Decepticons from doing? Mainly, we're going to be stopping them from stopping us. The natives here seem to be gone, but the fight could spread to multiple worlds, in which case, we will work halt any oppression and exploitation of indigenous sophonts. In short? Stop them from taking over the universe - and all the universes. The usual, just multiplied."
No pressure.
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